Why do straight people think all gays want to do is recruit?

Question

I am a lesbian and most people fear me because they think I want to "turn" them. Also they seem to think that because you are gay you are also a s***. Whats up with that? I am not a vampire, nor a s***, and I think people are people. Be who you are.. geesh! Besides I believe in monogamy.

Answer 1

These are common misconceptions left over from a virulent anti-gay campaign from the 1950's. The question is, why would these misconceptions still be around 50 years later?

The answer is a combination of fear and ignorance.

The cure for fear is education, but a lot of people choose to be controlled by their fear and just believe rumors and half-truths told to them by others.

Or worse, they reject education outright, clinging instead to these and other comfortable lies. This is called willful ignorance.

You and I and every gay person in the world knows that it is not possible to recruit or turn people gay, because being gay is not a choice.

You and I and every gay person I know personally also believe in monogamy. I have been with my partner for over 8 years, and have gay friends who have been with their partners for 20 years, 30 years, and even longer.

These are facts. The question now is this: how will the type of people you wrote about react when they read this? Will they reject my statements as lies and propaganda? Or will they open their minds, learn, and become better people?

We may never know, but we do have to go on trying to educate people... it's the only way to combat the social problems you mention, problems that every gay person is faced with at some point in their lives.

Answer 2

Honey, it is like this: The news have been reporting for a while that several gay groups are not only fighting for the "right" to marry, but are also attempting to convince very young children that homesexuality is something to be desired. Talk about sickness of the mind. I say that all should be done according to what is appropriate to age. These "gay" groups want our young children to exploit their sexuality in their schools and taxpayer money to be used to this effect.
Just watch the news and find out what's up. That's all that I can tell you.
Mr. M on "recruit."

Answer 3

Because for some thing rationale, the arena hates homosexuals. It's all anti-gay propaganda. You cannot "recruit" instantly humans. As for seducing a instantly character, sure, it's feasible. Does it occur most often? No. But it's certainly feasible. Especially throughout youngster years and early 20s whilst humans are younger and adventurous with hormones raging. Usually, it is simply experimenting and the instantly humans stay instantly.

Answer 4

The fear of recruitment is baseless because it is based on a false premise - that gay people recruit straight people to become gay. We don't. We don't recruit because we know from our own experience that sexual orientation is inborn, and can't be changed. Indeed, the attempts by psychologists, counselors and religious therapy and support groups to change sexual orientation have all uniformly met with failure - the studies that have been done of these attempts at "therapeutic" intervention have never been shown to have any statistically significant results in the manner intended, and most have been shown to have emotionally damaging consequences. So the notion that someone can be changed from straight to gay is just as unlikely. Yet there remains that deep, dark fear that somehow, someone might get "recruited." And that baseless fear is often used by bigots to scare people into opposing gay rights in general, as well as gay marriage.

The core cause of this fear is the result of the fact that many homophobes, including most virulent, violent homophobes are themselves repressed sexually, often with same sex attractions. One of the recent studies done at the University of Georgia among convicted killers of gay men has shown that the overwhelmingly large percentage of them (more than 70%) exhibit sexual arousal when shown scenes of gay sex. The core fear, then, for the homophobe is that he himself might be gay, and might be forced to face that fact. The homophobia can be as internalized as it is externalized - bash the queer and you don't have to worry about being aroused by him.

It is sad but true and the dumber people are the more likely they are to react to the idea that gays can in some way recruit or would even want to ....just because they happen to be male they seem to think your instantly gonna want to jump them

...even the ugly bald and fat stait ones seem to think gay also means desperate ,and the fact that they may happen to possess a dick means were interested in them .....lol...beleive me were not gay blokes do better bods overall

Answer 5

I've never understood why straight people are so afraid of someone trying to "turn" them. If they're straight, it obviously won't succeed. What've they got te fear?

Some people think that gays want to recruit because we can't reproduce. They simply fail to understand that we don't -have- to recruit. -They're- the ones making next generation's homosexuals. (And some of them can reproduce—my gay dad was, sadly enough, married to a woman for twenty years and cranked out two kids in the process.)

Some mis-see our attempts at education at attempts at recruitment. We aren't trying to turn kids gay. We're just trying to tell them that they don't have to kill themselves if they start figuring out that they -are- gay.

Some see that there are more out homosexuals than there were previously, and so the only way they can see for that is by our recruiting.

Answer 6

I too believe in monogamy! It's nice to see someone else believes in this as well. I have never really had a problem, though with people thinking I'm trying to turn them. I think this is primarily because I'm in a small town in the Bible Belt. My partner and I keep to ourselves for the most part and don't broadcast our lives. (Not that I'm suggesting that you do!)

Answer 7

It's really ignorance.

It's a failure to grasp the concept that being homosexual really is not all about sex. They forget that some of us out here actually want a relationship that's pretty much the same as the one they have with their wife/husband/mate; it's just that some aspects of the physical relationship are a little different.

All we can do is hope for the best and surround ourselves with open-minded, educated people in the meantime!

Answer 8

I think it has to do with the fact that people tend to focus right away on the fact that you are gay (lesbian) and they forget everything else they ever knew about you. So in their minds all they can think about is you and your sexuality. It is truly their hang up and not a problem that you carry about, but I'm not sure I know how to solve it.

I've thought about that a few times when a man finds out I'm gay, and immediately speaks up to tell me he's not interested. I'm thinking, "don't flatter yourself, dude," but I say something more like, "that's ok, I'm looking for someone taller."

Answer 9

It's simply what they have been taught. There are a lot of people teaching this stuff. Try listening to the Christian talk radio sometime. I enjoy much of it but when they start talking about queers it still suprises me.

It seems that people would use their brains and know that the gay population is just as diverse as any other sub-culture.

Answer 10

I totally agree! I also can't understand why they believe that we lesbians will hit on just any girl! Don't they think we have a taste as well? We are just humans attracted to some people. Much like any straight person.